history lesson

DayBird - June 3rd

1839 – In China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 2.6 million pounds of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a justification to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War. After the destruction of the opium, Lin Zexu jotted a note to the Queen of GB and said, "why you got to go be like that?" Her response was less than friendly.

1941 – Here stood Kandanos, destroyed in retribution for the murder of 25 German soldiers, never to be rebuilt again. The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground, killing 180 of its inhabitants and slaughtering all livestock.

1968 – Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol being shooting him. pow, pow. You watched the movie. When asked to explain, she said that Warhol "had too much control over my life." Warhol refused to testify against her.

Warhol had this to say about the attack: "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

wow. She really should of tried harder.

1929 - Chuck Barris, game show host and self proclaimed hitman for the C.I.A., is born. We have him to thank for classics, such as: The Gong Show, The Dating Game, and The Newlywed Game. In Barris's autobiography Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, originally published in 1984, Barris claimed to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. deny, deny, deny. The CIA denies Barris ever worked for them in any capacity. duh. CIA spokesman Paul Nowack said Barris' assertions that he worked for the spy agency "[are] ridiculous. It's absolutely not true."